By Adam Pagnucco.
Back in December, I reported that Council Member Will Jawando, who had recently quit running for U.S. Senate, had opened a federal PAC. Jawando promoted it with a blast email titled “Never stop moving forward” and described it as “Our new project dedicated to electing a new generation of leaders who will reject the zero-sum politics of today and take real action to build an economy that works for all, protect our community from attacks on our fundamental rights, support our children’s education, and finally fix our broken healthcare system.”
The PAC’s goals may be grand, but so far, its fundraising is not.
The PAC’s first campaign finance report shows that it has received $6,882.50. That’s underwhelming enough but bear in mind that $5,000 of that was transferred from Jawando’s U.S. Senate account. Of the rest, only one contribution – a $250 contribution from weather industry lobbyist Tom Fahy – was itemized. The other $1,632.50 came from unitemized contributions, which are $200 or less each.
Since the PAC spent $572.67, of which $500 went to compliance firm Mele, Brengarth & Associates, it had a cash balance of $6309.83 at the end of 2023.
None of this means that Jawando has problems raising money. To the contrary, he has been an able fundraiser in his prior races and his U.S. Senate account has a cash balance of $163,531 after paying off campaign expenses and refunding some contributions. What it does mean is that despite his past races for U.S. House (2016) and U.S. Senate (2023), he is not yet a federal-level politician. He is still a local elected official – a pretty successful one judging by his passage of rent control and numerous bills to restrict police authority – who has a lot of work to do to move up.
And knowing Jawando, that work will continue.